1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly, and particularly to an electrical connector assembly having a plurality of vertically stacked connectors.
2. Description of Related Art
With the trend toward miniaturization in computer technology, a variety of electrical connector assemblies have been developed. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,709,554, 6,227,905, 6,234,833 and 6,234,834 disclose several related conventional electrical connector assemblies. The connector assemblies disclosed in these patents comprise two types of configuration. A first type is that the connectors of the assembly are vertically stacked, all terminals of the connectors extending downward to mount on a PCB with mating faces of the connectors perpendicular to the PCB. Referring to FIG. 3 of the ""554 patent, an electrical connector assembly thereof comprises four different housings assembled in a vertically stacked manner. Four different molds are needed to manufacture the four different housings. This increases cost of the stacked connector assembly. Furthermore, when the stacked connector assembly is assembled on a printed circuit board (PCB), an area occupied by the stacked connector assembly is large, which is disadvantageous in view of the precious available area of the PCB. Referring to FIG. 9 of the present invention, which is a copy of FIG. 1 of the ""834 patent, a stacked connector comprises first and second housing members 71, 72 having a same structure with each other. A spacer 8 defines a plurality of grooves 81 to receive and position two sets of contacts 9 therein. This connector assembly is assembled on a PCB (not shown) by tail portions 91 of the contacts 9 inserted into through holes of the PCB. A second type configuration is that the connectors of the assembly is arranged horizontally side by side. In some applications, it is required that a vertically stacked connector assembly is soldered to a printed circuit board by surface mounting technology (SMT). Both the above mentioned two types of stacked connector assembly can not meet such requirement.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a vertically stacked connector assembly which is soldered to a PCB by SMT.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, an electrical connector assembly in accordance with the present invention comprises a dielectric housing group including first and second housing members connected together and each have a front face adapted for plugging in a corresponding one of mating connectors and a rear face, the rear face defines a plurality of receiving slots toward the front face. A plurality of first terminals assemble to a corresponding receiving slots and each of them comprises a contacting portion and a mating portion extending from the contacting portion. A plurality of second terminals each has a mating portion, a retaining portion extending from an end of the mating portion and a solder portion extending from an end of the retaining portion. A spacer has a base portion with a plurality of retaining slots and insertion holes defined in a rear surface of the base portion. The retaining slots are generally parallel to the rear face of the housings. The insertion holes run through the base portion and are in communication with the retaining slots of the spacer and the receiving slots of the housing. The retaining portions of the second terminals are received in the retaining slots of the spacer. The mating portions of the second terminals are inserted into the insertion holes and further received in the receiving slots of the housings and electrically connect with the mating portions of the first terminals. A grounding terminal has a body strip and a pair of arm sections extending from the body strip. Each arm section assembles to one of the receiving slot of each housing and the body strip is received in the retaining slot of the spacer. A solder portion extends from an end of the body strip. The solder portions of the grounding terminal and the second terminals extend beyond the spacer for being soldered on the PCB.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.